Thursday Night Open Thread

I've been spending all my free time and then some tinkering with my new creation. It should be ready in a few days, hopefully over the weekend. I'm also going to check into having a professional add the commenting features everyone asked for.

Tonight my eyes need a break from staring at tiny coding symbols, and I need a break from the computer. The TL kid is bringing Chinese food over from the place we used to get it when he was a kid (I'm no longer in the delivery area)so I'll leave you all with an open thread, all topics welcome.

understand why people make excuse after excuse for George W. Bush. I mean he screwed up constantly. Just own it and move on. The majority of Americans think the guy was a disaster but apparently some people think that they can make up stuff and change history. All defending George W. Bush proves to anyone is that you don't have a problem with his screw ups.

you got to admit he was very successful in destroying the GOP. Now whether that was his goal or not who knows but then he managed to have all his businesses fail. So maybe the only thing he know how to really do well is screw things up.

Success for Bush, hardly, maybe he's convinced himself that most Americans are wrong, and that he was successful/popular. But in reality, his party kept him far away in 2008, his name was never mentioned, and even now his own party isn't championing anything he did. And most are admitting that the war was at the very least, ill conceived.

I don't know of any metric that one could use to call Bush a success. Using a term like screwed up makes it impossible to counter, if you mean partisanship, I would hardily think anyone goes to DC to make it more partisan. He single handedly made a way for a black man to become president, trust me, not many republicans regard Obama as a a success of Bush. Most of his staff left in disgrace, the deficit soared, 9/11 happened on his watch, the market crashed, and on and on.

Dragging D's into the war that they manufactured a whole bunch of evidence for is not the same as D's going along with their non-sense. A lot of people where tricked into a lot of nefarious stuff by that crew, and again, not the same as going along with it.

And as much as I agree about cleaning some of it, Obama has gotten the ideologues out of key positions, remember that mess. Bush tried and failed completely to ensure republicans would rule for a long time with that kind of nonsense. Anyone who claims Bush succeeded in anything, but proving he was a complete idiot, needs to check their facts IMO.

Obama has failed in restoring a lot of our liberties, but that is completely different can of worms then the group who actually took them away. I don't like the implication that not fixing a disaster is the equivalent of creating said disaster. Not equal in any way.

I would add that had Bush not stole the election, the D's wouldn't be getting blamed for not cleaning up Bush's mess better. Or is Gore's ceding the election another example of the D's going along with Bush ?

Literal and willful mental retardation is what it is. Corruption and racism and malevolence and greed and utter lack of creativity/imagination, too. And so much more. These so-called leaders deserve whatever sock full of wet dogsh*t hits them square in the face.

Here in Michigan the state is going after the revenue that a few school districts managed to scare up by leasing space to Billboard companies, if the school district was lucky enough to own land adjacent to a highway. Turns out that there are about 600 cases of this. The state is using zoning mechanisms or ambiguities to attempt to force the grab. FYI, the giant digital signs earn the district about $50K/year, gross the sign company about $10-$12K/month, and cost around half a million.

the monarchs migrating up from Mexico came through our canyon here outside of LA.

I assume there was some specific air stream that they were using that day that we haven't had since, but there were, literally, thousands - tens of thousands - of monarchs flying by our front door that day.

And fast, too. With the wind behind them they were as fast as birds.

As kids in NJ we captured them and grew them in shoe boxes with stocking nets replacing the front covers, and watched them metamorphose (ize?) into butterflies, and then we watched them fly away.

go through the "process" in my living room :) Apparently I had brought home the worm with my CSA veggies and it did it's thing on my pained pocket door. I remember the day the butterfly emerged. After it's wings dried, I took it out to the tree in front of my place.

Along with the bees, I also have several from the wasp family. It's kinda funny, because we seem to have a peace treaty in my garden. I can work out there with the bees buzzing etc along with my crazy dog and cats, and they don't seem to mind us :) And my little hummers come right up to me and hang for attention. With the beautiful weather and breezes we get from the bay, I'm pretty sure my backyard is a bit of heaven on earth . . . I got really lucky!

butterflies. And yes, they all know that :D I've order some new seeds for more 'attracting' plants. My lil' hummingbirds are so cool! And I have about 4 or 5 different bees and several types of butterflies. I also like my ladybugs :)

The Lobos never fail to disappoint me in the NCAA tourney. I choose against them, and they always comply by washing out early in one of the first two rounds.

This year proved a risky proposition, as UNM drew Harvard, an Ivy League school which lost its two best players earlier this season to an academic cheating scandal.

Oh, ye of little faith! The Crimson have led practically the entire game over a Lobo team that at times looks completely befuddled, and are on the doorstep of the first truly huge upset of the tournament.

There's still some time left, but the door's starting to close on New Mexico -- again.

No. 14 stuffs No. 3. As their reward for the biggest win in school history, the Crimson draw Arizona on Saturday. The Wildcats eliminated Belmont earlier this evening.

It's been a lousy tourney week for the Mountain West, with Boise State, UNLV and now New Mexico bidding us all aloha, and only Colorado State prevailing thus far in the first round. San Diego State plays Oklahoma tomorrow.

By contrast, it was a great day for the Atlantic 10, as Saint Louis, VCU and Butler all won handily to advance to the second round.